Bitumen recovery from oil sands presents technical and economic challenges due to high viscosity of the bitumen at reservoir conditions. Thermal recovery processes such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) inject steam to heat the bitumen. The bitumen with reduced viscosity due to this heating then drains and is recovered.
Uniqueness of each reservoir due to factors, such as formation heterogeneities, creates uncertainties with respect to employing SAGD. Optimization of the SAGD to improve economics relies on understanding performance issues even though occurring underground making the issues often unknown. Since not possible to detect all desired information from well pairs used for the injection and production, prior approaches utilize separate vertical mono-bore observation wells.
The observation wells whether utilized in SAGD or other hydrocarbon production processes including water flood or other enhanced oil recovery procedures collect various data, such as reservoir temperature profiles. For example, the temperature profile provides indication of a resulting steam chamber development, which information may lead to making technical or operational adjustments. However, coverage at more than one vertical location through the reservoir may require intensive drilling to form several of the mono-bore observation wells.
Therefore, a need exists for methods and systems for cost effective monitoring of a reservoir during hydrocarbon production.